


Echoes

by ahlvister



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: F/M, Original Character-centric, Pregnancy, spies in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-07-28 06:50:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7629208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahlvister/pseuds/ahlvister
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Empire and Republic are in the midst of a cold war a few years after the Treaty of Coruscant. When a Sith kills the entirety of a passing Ascendancy scout crew, two Imperial agents with personal connections to the incident are brought together by fate. But will fate pull them apart?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fire

_ 2 ATC, Unknown Regions, near the fringes of Imperial Space _

 

Mitth’evi’nuruodo looked at himself in the mirror of the fresher. Nothing seemed different; the scouting mission thus far had been a success. His light blue skin was clear, other than the freckles that covered his face. He traced the scar that had formed down his mouth, and brushed his other hand across his curly hair. Though his hair was tight to his scalp, so there really was no reason to do that, but he was the kind of person who would do something like that. 

 

Thevin, as some referred to him, was CEDF, which meant that he had an important position for Chiss relations with the galaxy at large. Granted, it meant long trips in space as well as encountering the dangers outside of the Ascendancy. Luckily--at least in his opinion--he hadn’t had to deal with much of that, and got to visit his wife fairly often. Given that his wife was pregnant with their first child, this was rather important to him. But sometimes he dreamt of the future--a future he was not in. A future where his wife was sad and alone, or at least she was at first. Lately, his dreams showed her with someone else--presumably a human. She seemed happy, but it really bothered him to think of the possibility of no longer being with her.

 

Of course, he would never tell anyone this. It would be a bizarre thing to explain, for one--most people didn’t have dreams of the future, and besides that, they were just dreams. In the off-chance that something were to happen to him--and if those dreams really were of the future--he hoped that that human would take care of his wife. Thevin suddenly felt a chill down his back, as though something were wrong.

 

Thevin looked around apprehensively. Nothing seemed wrong, not entirely. But his gut still felt as though it was coiling around itself and he could feel the sweat running down his face. He fiddled with the locket around his neck, and opened it. A young woman smiled at him. Her skin was a deep blue and her hair was more of a teal color but at least a few shades lighter than her skin. “I’ll be home soon, my love,” he whispered to the locket. “And then our daughter will be raised well and happy.”

 

He heard the sound of authoritative footsteps, and turned his head. His superior, Mitth’ase’nuruodo, had approached him. “There is a Sith that wishes to board. She calls herself Darth Saud, and she wants every member of the crew present.” Thevin wondered what this Sith wanted with them. The crew was just completing a scouting run around the edge of the Unknown Regions. This had nothing to do with Imperial matters besides the alliance between the Ascendancy and the Empire. Although, from what little he knew about the Empire, there was a possibility that-- “Mitth’evi’nuruodo?”

 

“All right. I’ll head over immediately,” Thevin replied, ignoring the possibility of impending doom playing out in his mind.

 

He slowly walked over to the bridge, as if he were walking towards his own execution by the state, where a woman wearing a black form-fitting ensemble was waiting for him. He could feel the sweat crawling down his back, and the extremely palpable but also immense power coming from her. It was the strangest feeling he had ever experienced. He noted that her skin was a red-purple color and that she had ridges on her nose and eyebrows. Her eyes were definitely the oddest thing about her--at least to him. They were yellow, and nothing like his own. He caught himself staring out of fascination and fear.

 

A voice spoke in Basic. “You, the one with the scar. Are you going to keep staring at me, or are you going to explain what your mission is to me? I don’t have all day, and I don’t like being forced to wait.” Thevin quickly realized that this was the Darth Saud that Thasen mentioned.

 

Thevin straightened up. He could feel his hands shaking and sweating profusely. “My superiors would be better suited for that question, my lord,” he muttered. Saud scowled and narrowed her eyes at him.

 

“Speak up!” she shrieked. Thevin gasped reflexively. Saud’s hand reached out as if to grab him, and suddenly he could feel his throat tightening. “I am a Dark Lord of the Sith, and I demand respect. So when I ask you to speak up, you speak up!” Thevin couldn’t bring the words out to answer her question--and in the back of his mind, all he could think of was his wife.  _ Pherue, my love, I am so sorry.  _ And with a twist of her hand, he was gone.

 

 

_ 3 ATC, Csilla _

 

Pherue slowly pushed herself out of bed. It had been weeks since she had heard anything from her husband. She knew that travelling near Imperial Space could be a dangerous occupation, but she couldn't help but wonder if something had gone wrong. The fluttering in her stomach served as a reminder of why this was important. As part of House Nuruodo, their child would be well taken care of, but if they were both there it would make receiving such resources a lot easier.

 

As she got up, she noticed that the light on her holocommunicator was flashing. She walked over to it and pressed the small button to activate it. It appeared as though there was a missed call. Pherue cycled through the messages. Most of them were relatively unimportant for the time being--mostly diplomacy things. But the last message seed a little strange at first. It was obviously a pocket dial seeing as there was no video. Then she listened to the audio parts of the message. And in that moment she knew what she had to do.

 

_ 3 ATC, Imperial Space--specifically Dromund Kaas, Kaas City _

 

Pherue didn't know exactly where to go with this information but she knew it had to go somewhere. She waddled up to the nearest bench and sat down, holding her belly. She knew that she was getting resentful looks from some of the humans here. Imperials never liked aliens, especially when they came in to the capital looking like she did right now. Or so she had heard from some of the other diplomats in recent years, circa the time that she married her now late husband. From what limited knowledge she had of the Empire, she knew that the place to go with this information would be Imperial Intelligence Headquarters. Hopefully, Thevin would get the justice he deserved. After all, in the Ascendancy, someone who committed murder would likely be exiled or at least severely punished. 

 

Eventually she reached the Citadel and thusly Imperial Intelligence, breath ragged and clutching her swollen belly. She walked up to the desk and asked the young human clerk where to take the information.

 

“I don't speak alien,” the clerk said indignantly. Pherue then began to state what she wanted to say using the Imperial Basic she had learned for her occupation within the Ascendancy. It was somewhat broken from lack of practice, but suddenly the clerk had a look of recognition on her face and said, “Be right back. I have to go make a holocall.”

 

A sigh of relief washed over Pherue, but it was not to last as a sharp pain began to contract around her stomach. She felt like she was seeing stars as she slumped to the ground, fully conscious but in great pain. The next several moments were somewhat of a blur, but Pherue vaguely noticed the clerk returning with several mysterious people and taking her away somewhere after injecting her with something. Shortly afterwards, her eyesight went dark.

 

When she awoke, she noticed that she was in a hospital bed, and the fluttering in her stomach was gone. When her hand went to check, she felt an incision. A rather large one, in fact. It was sewn up, but still an incision. The realization dawned on her: her child had been born, and would never get to meet her. It didn’t mean she was dead, but it did mean she was gone. She cried tears for the child she would never meet, and hoped that someday they would meet again.

 

The next thing Pherue knew, she was taken to a room with no windows and hardly any light, alone with an individual that the person escorting her referred to as the “Durasteel Lady.” She was a tall human woman with long green hair wrapped up in a large bun and light brown skin. Her mouth formed a thin, displeased line, as though she had something she had on her mind, but didn’t know how to say it.

 

What questions Pherue had about her situation and what had happened were answered as the Durasteel Lady’s deep, raspy voice filled the room: “So, you’re a problem now. You had information that we simply cannot allow to come public. Normally, I’d have to kill you, but given what we know about you--and we know quite a bit--the boss wanted to offer you...options.”

 

“What kind of options?”

 

“Well, you’ve got two. Either you die, or you join us. We will see where you benefit us most if you decide to join us.”

 

“I will join your organization, as I do not wish to die. At least not without having seen my daughter.”

 

The Durasteel Lady’s hazel eyes grew soft with pity. “I’m so sorry, but you won’t get to see her--but I can tell you she is safe. Once you’re with us, Intelligence is your family, your life. You can’t go back to the way things were.”

 

Pherue cried once again for the child she would never meet, and hoped that someday they would meet again.

 

_ Later in the year, Kaas City _

 

Keeper--she never understood why he was called that--walked up to her. “You’ve done an excellent job analyzing this data. You’re not as good as the individuals bred for this purpose, but still, you’re quite good.”

 

Pherue could only nod. Keeper had been one of the kinder individuals in Intelligence, or at least, that was what she perceived. Most brushed her off because she was an alien. But despite her reluctance, she had plenty to offer, and since she could not just up and leave, she may as well make good use of herself. That was what the Ascendancy would have expected of her. Keeper, however, saw her for what she was: an asset, and also as a person. She appreciated that, even if he was her boss and also part of a shadowy organization that made people disappear--or so the rumors went. But Keeper clearly had more to say, so Pherue stopped thinking about that and began to listen again.

 

“Thusly, I believe it is time I let you know this. When we give you your designation, you are no longer who you once were. Your identity as who you once were is irrelevant and a liability. You are no longer Pherue Tevas. You are now Watcher Six.”

  
Suddenly she understood why he was called that.


	2. Aidus Ker

_4 ATC, Kaas City_

“Cipher Six, may I speak with you a moment?” Keeper called out.

Aidus turned around and walked over to Keeper’s office. He waited for Keeper to let him in, and when Keeper beckoned him in, he followed. “What is it, Keeper? Is this about my next assignment? Or about my former handler?”

“Simply put, your former handler revealed himself to be an excellent slicer, so we changed his designation so he’d be of more use to us. But that is not why I have brought you in. She is why I have brought you in,” explained Keeper, gesturing towards the Chiss woman standing next to him. “This is your new handler. Meet Watcher Six.”

The first thing he noticed about her was the ring on her finger. After all, he was never a fan of eye contact--he’d learned far too many times that eye contact was in and of itself a form of confrontation. Luckily the visual implants that he had covered his eyes. Most of the time. They were retractable, but for his own ease of mind, they were usually in front of his eyes. But back to the ring on her finger. It was a simple ring of alien design, though given that she was an alien this was no surprise. The odd thing about it was that people in Intelligence usually had no attachments to the outside world, and clearly this Watcher Six had a family out there that mattered to her.

The next thing he noticed about her was her eyes. She was a Chiss after all, and Chiss eyes were known across Imperial space for how different they were from humans, largely due to the fact that they had neither pupils nor irises--in addition to how they were a bright, dangerous red. In her own way, perhaps, she had something so that nobody knew she was looking at them. Was she looking at him? He sincerely hoped not.

“Watcher Six, this is Cipher Six. Normally he is very devoted to his job, but he seems to be a bit preoccupied at the moment. Perhaps he will eventually leave whatever land he is daydreaming in.”

Aidus shook his head. “I’m fine, Keeper. Now may I please be briefed on my next assignment?”  
“Attitude, Cipher Six.”

“Sorry, Keeper.”

* * *

Pherue had read up on this Cipher Six individual. Somewhat obsessed with his work, but more interested in bettering the Empire than being a lackey of the Sith. In fact, the psychological reports stated that he actively disliked them--something which, as she’d come to learn, was somewhat akin to suicide. Most of the reasoning as to why appeared to be encrypted, however--no names stated, no incidents reported. She wondered what sort of issues were being held back there. Of course, she couldn’t look into the decryption here, especially not with Keeper standing right next to her. And she’d need a Fixer who was skilled in this sort of thing to teach her how to get past it, perhaps. But that was not relevant right now; now, she had to give Cipher Six his assignment.

So she did.

Most of what Pherue did for Intelligence could be classified as data collection and presentation. The eugenics project individuals in Intelligence (the Ascendancy would never have stooped so low as to have a eugenics program, she thought) did most of the analyzing since their brains were engineered to process it quicker than she could. Pherue was okay with it; it was busywork. Now she had a person to provide data to, however, with Cipher 6 there. She was somewhat excited, but something about him bothered her. The feeling was vaguely familiar; she remembered it from the beginning stages of her courtship with Thevin. Of course, this was someone she was working with and also it was far too soon to jump to such conclusions. So she pushed it down to the back of her mind and collected the data for Cipher 6’s next mission.

* * *

Of course, there was far more to this first mission with Cipher 6 than she had initially recognized. It was a complicated retrieval mission from a Czerka base on a planet in the Outer Rim--another agent had been compromised and his job was to successfully extract them and keep them alive. Keeper had asked Pherue to stay in contact with the Cipher throughout the mission, though of course not all the time. After all, talking to an unseen person the entire mission would compromise him. 

The informant at the base was a slicer that had been pocketing some of Czerka’s weapons and selling them. Pherue knew the hard part for Cipher 6 would be getting in the base, but they had a plan, so things would hopefully work out, assuming the Cipher could do the things she asked him to do. Suddenly, a voice spoke into her earpiece:

“Hey, Watcher 6, can you give me some more information on the security layout of the place? I see some droids but there’s too many for me to just go and fight,” the voice on the other end of the line stated. He sounded slightly in a panic, but not too bad overall.

“There should be a computer terminal on the other side of the room, towards the back. You’ll be in view of the droids, however, so I’d suggest you attempt to use your stealth generator.”

“ _Attempt?_ Do you really have that little faith in me?”

“I just don’t know you well enough yet, Cipher. I’m sure once I have a better idea of your skillset besides what Keeper told me, I will be more optimistic with your chances,” Pherue said plainly.

“Let’s talk about my skills over caf when I get back, then. For now, I’ll be sneaking over to that computer terminal.”

Pherue flushed with embarrassment. He was infuriating. Did he have no discretion whatsoever? Still, he was rather convincing and she’d definitely think about his offer. But she had a job to do, so she shoved that thought into the back of her mind and decided to deal with it later.

* * *

 _Intelligence’s research lab is so much cleaner than this,_ he thought. _At least they don’t leave their datapads lying around in huge piles--and on the floor, no less!_

He was taken from his thoughts when the informant pointed at a small vial, hidden beneath all the datapads scattered about the place. Inside the vial was a liquid with a sickly green color. He wondered for a moment what it did, but the informant spoke before he could really let his mind wander: “This vial--we should take it. It’s still in the experimental stages but I believe that the Fixers would be able to finish it and make it a great weapon to help the Empire subdue its enemies.”

“But what does it do?” Aidus asked, curiosity growing ever-stronger with every passing moment.

“Let the Fixers deal with that. Time’s going by and I’d rather not stick around,” the informant stated plainly, clearly in a rush to leave.

So he pushed his curiosity to the back of his mind and led the informant through the labs to their escape shuttle.

* * *

Aidus tapped his foot anxiously while waiting by the caf stand. Surely she’d gotten the memo. After all, after his last mission she’d accepted his offer and given a concrete time she’d be willing to go with him. Watcher 6 was so serious all the time--maybe he should have taken her to the cantina instead, but he didn’t want her to get the wrong idea about him. Then again he’d probably showed up like an hour before he said he’d be there. He checked the time at the stand--he did.

Finally, she showed up. Her hair was down, but the time was right when she said she’d be there.  
“You’re early,” she said.

“Well, I tend to be early.”

She raised an eyebrow. “When have you ever been early to work when you’re not on a mission?”  
“Good point, Watcher. Anyway, calling you ‘Watcher’ in public is not the smartest thing. What is your name, anyway?”

“You know, Keeper took away our names when we joined--but I still remember mine. You would not be able to pronounce the full version of it, so I will just give you the name we give to humans such as yourself. It’s Pherue.”

“Aidus Ker. Pleasure to meet you, Pherue.” He winked at her, but he knew she could not see through his optics. He debated retracting them so she could see his eyes, but he decided not to for the time being. He didn’t really know if he could trust her with that sort of intimacy yet, but he knew he wanted to. Be able to trust her, that is. His mind was already wandering and he really didn’t need that right now. He decided to order them both some caf--she liked hers the same way he liked his, oddly enough.

Perhaps Pherue would prove to be someone that he could trust. There were so few people he could trust in the galaxy anymore. As with all things, it would take time, but he was hopeful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally meet Aidus--he's my Cipher baby and I love him! I hope everyone who reads this is enjoying it. :)
> 
> As always, I am more than willing to take comments and constructive criticism. Please let me know what you like (or don't like) about what I'm writing.
> 
> Also, I'm working on the sequel already (though that's a long ways away). It's gonna feature Theron Shan in a fairly major role so that's something to look forward to, I guess?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first longform fic. I've done quick drabbles, but I'm kind of new to this whole "big fic" thing. I realize that I'm a little in over my head, especially with the (so far) only original characters thing. I plan on introducing my "canon" Imperial Agent character at some point, but I'll add that tag when I get her in there. Also, I'm still editing this thing at the moment. It feels too short, so if there's a lot of changes to the fic next time you read it, that's probably why.
> 
> Either way, thanks for trying this out, and I sincerely hope you stick around! I promise I've got something good going with this one!


End file.
